The World Online

Panda Novel

Chapter 963 – A Huge Group of War Prisoners Rush Over

Ouyang Shuo said to Jiang Shang, “Beijiang Province has a really important strategic value, so the Cabinet must choose the governors wisely.”

“Yes my king!”

Jiang Shang understood that although the king appointed Wufu as the Provincial Governor, he would not truly allow him to run Beijing Province alone. Naturally, the king needed governors that he trusted.

This was how rulers balanced power; Jiang Shang obviously understood this.

If Jiang Shang could not understand it, unable to get what the king was getting at and choosing the wrong people as a result, it would be better if he just resigned from the Cabinet.

Establishing the Beijiang Province, the troops in the province also needed to be reorganized. Ouyang Shuo looked toward Military Affairs Minister Du Ruhui and asked, “What’s the Privy Court’s opinion on the troop arrangement in Beijiang Province?”

Before the meeting, Jiang Shang as the Grand Secretary had already informed Du Ruhui about this matter in advance. He wanted him to be mentally prepared.

This was the role of the Cabinet. Even if Ouyang Shuo knew, he would not interfere.

Hence, Du Ruhui already had some ideas, “The Privy Court thinks that we should follow Morocco and Somalia Province and set up a Beijiang Formation.”

Ouyang Shuo frowned, “A normal formation only has 100 thousand troops. It is not enough to defend the entirety of Beijiang.”

“The organization of the formation is not set in stone. I suggest we move the Stone City legion, the Leopard Legion Corps 4th legion, and the Binhai Squadron into the Beijiang Formation to form a huge formation. Of course, the Binhai Squadron would only be listed under them during war time, and the daily training would still be led by the Navy Headquarters.”

Ouyang Shuo nodded in praise. Du Ruhui’s way of thinking was similar to modern day methods. It seemed like this Military Affairs Minister had been spending a lot of time studying up on military matters.

Great Xia needed people like Du Ruhui who knew they needed to continue learning and improve themselves to improve with the times. They did not need corrupt ministers who hung onto their old values.

As a result, Great Xia was different from any dynasty. Not only was this a really prosperous dynasty, but it was also one that changed with the times. It was a dynasty that was exceptionally confident.

Since establishing the territory to the current Great Xia, Ouyang Shuo’s goals had never changed.

“Accepting everyone and being tolerant of diversity.” This was inculcated into the minds of everyone through the Xinan University, becoming the spirit and motto of the entire dynasty.

Only with such a special quality could a monster like the Great Xia Dynasty be sustained.

To let such a special values seep into the dynasty and improve with it, mounding and improving oneself, was Ouyang Shuo’s secret to success.

Ouyang Shuo called it the way of the king, and it was a totally new description of something that was centuries old.

If one did not understand this point, they would not be able to see how the Great Xia Dynasty rose up so swiftly in the wilderness.

…

“The original Leopard Legion Corps 4th legion will become the 1st legion of the Beijiang Formation and the Stone City legion will become the 2nd legion.”

“The original Leopard Legion Corps 4th legion Legion General Chen Yucheng will be promoted to Beijiang Formation Lieutenant General; the original 1st division Major General Zhang He will be promoted to 1st legion Legion General; and the original Stone Legion Legion General will become the 2nd legion Legion General.”

Ouyang Shuo also had arrangements for the Binhai Squadron that was being formed, “Original Yashan Squadron chief general Cai Mao will be promoted to Binhai Squadron Deputy Fleet Admiral.”

The establishment of the Binhai Squadron was one that Cai Mao was in charge of, so Ouyang Shuo used the chance to promote him a grade. As for whether he could become a Fleet Admiral or not, more observations were needed.

Du Ruhui noted down the appointment changes one by one and asked, “My king, what about the Leopard Legion Corps?”

“Original Leopard Legion Corps 1st division Major General Cao Hong will be promoted to 4th legion Legion General. The troops of the 4th legion will be handled after the southwest battlefield ends.”

Zhang He and Cao Hong; these two Three Kingdoms generals were promoted.

There were not many top grade generals during the Three Kingdoms Period, especially those that were good at commanding. However, luckily, there were many of them, and that was what Great Xia needed now.

One could foresee that the Three Kingdoms generals would occupy an important position in the Great Xia Army, and this would become more evident as Great Xia continued to expand.

Listening to the king’s arrangements, Du Ruhui’s face was really tense. He made some rough calculation and found that after this battle, Great Xia would obtain hundreds of thousands of troops.

From the Battle of Dongchuan, they had captured around 70 thousand prisoners.

They had already gotten 150 thousand prisoners from the Shu Lands. After settling Hanzhong Prefecture, there would be a new batch of them.

In Chuanbei Province, there were the armies of the territories that pledge their allegiance to Great Xia. There were also war prisoners from the other territories, and the rough estimations put them at around 180 thousand.

Next would be Xiangnan Province. Apart from the two War Fighting Legions of Caiyun City, there were also the 110 thousand troops led by Li Mu. Counting in the war prisoners and the armies of the other territories, the overall number would be above 300 thousand.

After that would be the 60 thousand Qiang Race army; this army needed to be merged into the Great Xia system.

All in all, there were 700 thousand new troops, which was as much as two new legion corps. That was simply terrifying. Deducting the casualties and the injured, the number was still massive.

How to organize such a shocking number of troops had become the core job of the Privy Court.

Thinking about that, how could Du Ruhui be at ease?

Of course, the Cabinet led by Jiang Shang was also finding it tough. They had taken down three provinces at once. Not mentioning the officials, but just the three Provincial Governors and the 15 Governors, the amount of prefects, Country Magistrates, and the like was a huge amount.

This time, they would probably have to empty out the reserve officials that the Great Xia had amassed with so much difficulty.

Apart from that, the Cabinet needed to chair the official evaluation work and the administration organization of the three provinces. They needed to choose which city as the governing area, which prefecture, house, county governing area, and more. Along with the selection of the original officials, they would need to give them new appointments and the like. There was a lot of work to be done.

The current Cabinet along with the four courts was busy every day. Every day, they would work till late at night.

However, taking down these three provinces was not like a snake swallowing an elephant. Furthermore, considering Great Xia had a foundation of talents to keep up with the expansion, they have no choice but to stop to digest all of this.

Not to mention others aspects, but just to remove the spies of the Yanhuang Alliance hidden in the three provinces was going to be a big problem. Needless to mention the Shu Lands, which was run by the Feng Family, and they definitely had deep rooted relations in it.

Although the Feng Family had left, their influence still remained.

Yesterday, there were reports from the frontline that Zhang Liao’s forces had faced a lot of resistance in Badong Prefecture. They either acted outright or in the dark, employing many different methods.

As a result, dealing with the Shu Lands was not going to be an easy matter.

Chuanbei Province and Xiangnan Province were not easy either. Due to them establishing City-States, both of them had been infiltrated by both the Yanhuang Alliance and Great Xia on a large-scale.

The thorns on the surface were now removed, but those in the dark were not so easily cleaned out.

Along with the influence of the few Lords in the City-State, there were many hidden currents despite the calm appearance of the two provinces.

If they did not remove all these cancerous parts, Great Xia’s reign in the three provinces would not be stable.

Without a doubt, this would be a huge system, and it needed the Shanhai Guards to work well in the dark. The newly appointed Provincial Governor, Governor, Prefects, and the like must also cooperate to create a series of welfare packages and benefits to the people. They must treat the people well and win their hearts.

Only by stabilizing the people’s sentiment could the Imperial Court truly push out their plans.

During this period of time, Great Xia would focus on stabilizing its rule and would not fight anymore wars. It needed to rest up for a period of time to reorganize internally.

As a result of such considerations, Ouyang Shuo did not agree to Han Xin’s suggestion of attacking Pill Sun City.

10th month, 18th day, at basically the same time as the Handan City Army retreated from Zhangwu Prefecture, the two legions of Pill Sun City left Xiangnan Province and returned to their territory.

It was the same as saying Chun Shenjun had given up on Xiangnan Province and would not interfere.

The weird actions of Pill Sun City caught Ouyang Shuo’s attention. Such a decisive retreat was not Chun Shenjun’s style.

Ouyang Shuo was thinking about telling Han Xin to go past Baoqing Prefecture into Changsha Prefecture to attack the Pill Sun City Army together with Li Mu’s army.

Pill Sun City had a total of four legions, and if they lost two, Ouyang Shuo was confident about letting the Leopard Legion Corps continue north to wipe out Pill Sun City.

Who knew that before he could execute his plan, the Pill Sun City Army would have retreated?

This made Ouyang Shuo suspicious.

The first thing he suspected was that Caiyun Zinan had tipped him off. It was not surprising that he thought this way, as the surrender of Caiyun City was a secret. Regardless of how skilled Chun Shenjun was, he should not have been able to find it out.

However, since Ouyang Shuo did not have his hands on any evidence, he could not start anything. If not, West Gate Big Official and Gu Hengxiao might misunderstand.

However, he was definitely wary of Caiyun Zinan. He was already prepared to move him to an unimportant prefecture and arrange the Shanhai Guards to monitor him.

If he found out the truth was really like he suspected, Caiyun Zinan would be punished. Ouyang Shuo could not tolerate his dynasty having people betraying him.

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